Tom Vallesi fined by CFL for F-bomb, will not miss any officiating assignments

Photo courtesy: CFL

The Canadian Football League has fined official Tom Vallesi after he was heard uttering an expletive during this past week’s game between the Edmonton Elks and Saskatchewan Roughriders, according to Dave Naylor.

The @CFL official who used an F-bomb into an open mic on Saturday in Saskatchewan has been fined by the league. Tom Vallesi will not miss any assignments for his action. The @sskroughriders are satisfied with the handling of the situation.

On the broadcast it sounded as though Vallesi directed the expletive at the Riders after announcing they’d called a timeout before the second half got underway. The league issued an apology regarding the incident after the game, including Vallesi’s “deep regrets.”

Several players were late leaving Saskatchewan’s locker room, so much so that head coach Craig Dickenson was forced to call the timeout when the kickoff team didn’t have all twelve players on the field. He later called the mistake “embarrassing.”

Content warning: the video clip and image below include language that some may find offensive.

 

The F-bomb resonated through Rider Nation enough that beloved Twitter personality @fakeGAINER created a fake t-shirt to commemorate it. The initiative is great, but don’t expect to see these digs hit the Rider Store in time for the holiday season.

Vallesi is in his 17th season as a CFL official and has officiated three Grey Cup games, most recently in 2018. There were probably hundreds (thousands?) of F-bombs shouted during Saturday’s game, but his was the only one amplified to the 26,056 fans in attendance.